


Visits

by egosoffire



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Amputation, Emotions, Fluff, M/M, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Recovery, Tony Stark Lives, new relationships, post Endgame AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2020-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:35:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23208616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/egosoffire/pseuds/egosoffire
Summary: Post Endgame AU. Tony survived, and the man who lived fourteen million lives with him visits again and again.
Relationships: Tony Stark/Stephen Strange
Comments: 8
Kudos: 127
Collections: Bad Things Happen Bingo





	Visits

**Author's Note:**

> Bad Things Happen Bingo #2 - Amputation
> 
> The world is tough right now kiddos. So I used one of my bad things happen bingo squares to write something warm and fuzzy instead of angsty and traumatic.

_His first visit._

"Hey, doc."

Stephen was surprised that Tony was awake. According to the medical staff, he had been in and out of consciousness for the past few days. Wakanda's best efforts had saved the life of Earth's mightiest hero, but even the best in the world couldn't entirely undo the results of Tony's heroic sacrifice.

Yet, here he was, awake and slightly aware only a week after saving the world, looking at Stephen with those gentle brown eyes.

"Tony," he whispered; the man's name, however, felt more like a prayer. He supposed, in a way, that it was. 

Stephen had been propelled through millions of potential outcomes. It was more than most minds could take without breaking, but he had been prepared for the pain. He had learned how the inner workings of the soul could keep him alive, keep him functioning through the worst of it. He had looked at each and every one of those outcomes, and they had all ended in tragedy.

Sometimes the bad guy won, to put it simply. 

As he flew through the potentialities, Stephen had believed, for at least a moment, that there was no hope.

Then, he had found one possible win. He had gambled everything on Tony Stark, and it turned out that it was the right choice. 

"I'm afraid the arm thing's gonna be an adjustment," Tony said in a groggy voice. 

Stephen was sure that he was on all kinds of medication, so the fact that he was coherent was a miracle in itself. Then again, Tony Stark  _ was  _ a miracle. He looked over to his arm, which had been amputated immediately after the snap. The Wakandan surgeon, a lovely woman called Doctor Bishara, a woman who put Stephen's arrogant career in surgery to shame, had explained that it was the only way to put a stop to the flow of radiation into the rest of his body.

"An adjustment, yes," Stephen agreed, "but I have a feeling that you'll handle it with grace."

Tony laughed at that. Oh, it was beautiful to hear his laugh.

"Am I still pretty, doc?" he asked in a dreamy, distant tone. 

"The prettiest." 

"Sorry, I think I'm gonna pass out again."

That was all Tony said before falling back into unconsciousness. 

Stephen spent another moment just watching him. It was strange how easy it was, with the abilities that he had, for him to spend thousands of years with one man. Tony barely knew him, but he knew everything there was to know about Tony. He knew that the man had a heart like no other, that he loved more thoroughly than anyone else in the world, and that he was a genuinely good man.

His scars would be with him forever. Physically, mentally, he would be different, but Stephen truly believed that from this point forward, Tony Stark could rest. 

***

_His second visit._

He visited again three days later, and this time Tony was completely conscious and aware. The scars of what had happened, the burn marks scorching half of Tony’s body, they were unpleasant to look at, but at the same time, Stephen understood, after everything he had suffered through, that sometimes scars were a part of a person. They could hurt, they could remind a person of the worst things he had ever endured, but they could also show strength, resilience, and bravery unlike anything else.  
Tony’s scars were a part of Tony.

“How are you?” he asked, trying to tone down the love in his eyes. Tony was dealing with enough; he did not need to add a love-struck sorcerer to the issues that he faced. “I’m sure that you haven’t had a peaceful moment since you woke…”

“Peace is overrated,” Tony said with a sigh. “Plus, there are people I’ve been dying to see…”  


“Has Peter…”  


“Are you kidding me?” Tony asked with a low laugh. “Happy literally had to pry the kid away from my bedside. It was a truly amusing spectacle.”  


“How’s he doing?”  


“Good, great actually,” Tony said with a breath, looking up. The joy in his eyes was catching, filling him with such intense pleasure; he needed to take a step back and breathe in. “I’m sure you can relate. He’s alive, back with the people that he loves.”  


Stephen smiled thoughtfully at that.

He, too, was alive again. The five years that Thanos took had felt like nothing, the blink of an eye, but now that he was back among the living, he could truly feel the weight of what they had been through. Five years away from the world, five years of uncertainty where people had suffered and grown and changed.  


Yet, here he was, looking upon someone he cherished.  


His eyes wandered, and he found himself looking at Tony’s missing arm. It was a viciously scarred stump that ended in a tightly packed bandage. Underneath the thin bandaging, he could see some nanotechnology working on the skin.   


“They won’t explain to me how it works,” Tony said, almost mournfully. “Apparently, I need to heal up before I start working again. It’s supposed to be repairing at least a little of the damaged tissue so that it’s more suitable for a prosthetic when it heals.”  


“It’s quite fascinating…” Stephen agreed. “Tony, how are you…how are you doing with this?”

He knew the loss of a limb was difficult for anyone, and his brief glimpses into a life with Tony Stark let him know how challenging it’d be for Tony. The man was fiercely independent and relied on his hands.   


Tony looked at his stump of an arm for a moment before meeting Stephen’s eyes again.  


“Honestly, I’m okay,” he said softly. “When I did what I did, I did it with a full understanding that it would kill me.”  


Stephen would never tell Tony, or at least he wouldn’t tell him right away, but one of the outcomes he had visited had Tony die as a result of his snap. He had seen, horrified, a world where Tony had succumbed. It had felt, for a while, like a victory over Thanos, but he had watched the world fall apart slowly under the loss of Tony Stark, and searched desperately until he found one more.

“Can you tell me something?” Tony asked after a moment of silence. 

Stephen had to rip himself away from the dark thoughts of that other world, that other place where Tony had died.

“When you said that you saw a billion zillion outcomes…”

“Fourteen million, six hundred and five…”

“You don’t really mean that you  _ saw  _ them, do you?” Tony asked. “I think that you lived in some of them…”

“Magic and time are such complicated things, Tony,” Stephen said, sitting down in the chair opposite Tony’s bed. “Yes, I suppose that you could say that I did live in some of those universes, the ones that I thought had a chance. In many of them, we lost on Titan, and on earth, they were defeated in seconds. Yet, the ones that had potential, I followed a little further…”

“Did you and I get close in those universes?”

A blush immediately rose into his cheeks. Stephen closed his eyes and tried not to think too hard. He didn’t want Tony to know precisely what he was thinking, unless…unless perhaps Tony was also on board with the idea. 

"Yes," he said finally. One word. Yes. It was all he could say.

Tony seemed pleased by this. 

"Good," he murmured. "I can't begin to explain or understand magic, but I think I understand that… I've only known you for such a short time in comparison, but I…but I feel it too."

Tony let out a quiet yawn, and Stephen broke into a smile. 

"Tired?"

Tony sighed and nodded.

"It's frustrating. The drugs in my system are really screwing with my usual  _ go, go, go  _ attitude. But, it's like you doctors say, you gotta heal."

"You do. Get some rest, Tony."

"Hang on… first, can you do something for me?"

Stephen raised an eyebrow at that. What on earth could Tony want from him? 

"Of course."

"Come here."

Stephen got up from the chair and approached Tony's bedside. With his remaining arm, Tony reached for him and tugged him by the collar. When Stephen had stumbled halfway on top of him, Tony planted a small kiss on his lips. 

"I've got one arm," he teased as he pulled back. "I can get away with it."

***

_His third visit_

Three weeks after the end of things, Tony was doing better. He was up and about and displaying some vibrance, the color that Stephen had begun to associate with Tony Stark. The smile that lit up his face when Stephen entered the room was nothing short of breathtaking. God, he was sinking deeper and deeper into these feelings, and he honestly would not have it any other way.

“It’s my favorite wizard,” Tony said, resting the tablet on his lap. 

He was sitting up in an armchair that they had set up in his room. From what Stephen had heard, the genius hated being confined to a bed.

“Any good news on there?” Stephen asked, pulling up a chair and sitting beside him. 

“Actually, yes. It’s pretty uplifting, seeing the world come back together after a really screwed up period. I’m truly impressed…”

“Just took an unimaginable loss to make people act human,” Stephen teased. 

“That’s humans for you.”

For a moment, there was nothing except silence between them, but it wasn’t at all uncomfortable. Stephen appreciated that.

The silence was broken by a slight grunt front Tony, as he sat back in the chair.

“Does it hurt?” Stephen asked, regretting the question the moment that it was out of his mouth. 

Tony’s ravaged body, the scars, they would always be there; there was no saying if the pain he was feeling would fade away, or if it was there to stay. Stephen knew the way that pain could remain so long that it became part of you.

“Yeah,” Tony admitted, and just for a moment, there was a flicker of fear behind his dark eyes. He reached over and took hold of Stephen’s hand. “It’s scary, honestly. I don’t know what’s coming next, but I know that I will survive. I’m not alone.”

“No, you certainly are not.”

Tony turned Stephen’s hand around in his and looked at the scars, the lines there. Stephen had to fight the urge to pull away.

“Do they still hurt?” Tony asked, the words soft.

Stephen nodded. 

“Underlying traumatic damage,” he said honestly. “Most of the time, I don’t even think about it anymore. It flares up at times and is better at others. Yet, I suppose that’s the whole of it. We heal. That’s what humans do. Even if our bodies don’t always keep up. I’ve healed inside, and I deal.”

“Well, if you can deal, then I will too,” Tony promised, leaning over the edge of the armchair. Instinctively, Stephen leaned back towards him, and Tony took that opportunity to lay a kiss on his cheek. “I know I’m not alone like I said, and I feel like things are going to be okay. Speaking of which…”  
Tony trailed off, and Stephen leaned back into his own seat.

“Yes?”

“Well, I was curious. Once I’m healed, and we’re back home…” Tony drawled out. “Would you do me the honor of a date?”  
Stephen couldn’t help his grin at that.

“What?”

“I would be honored.”

***

_His fourth visit_

They returned to the city shortly after Stephen’s third visit. The date they had planned was simplistic, to say the least. Tony still wasn’t at his best, and they’d decided to take one of the tower’s observation decks for their own. It was a large room with one glass wall that offered a breathtaking view of the city.

Tony poured their drinks one-handed with a little assistance from…a robot.

“Should I help?” Stephen asked as the creature struggled with the wine cork.

“Nah, if you do that, he won’t learn.”

Stephen watched as Tony watched the robot, and the affection in his eyes was terrific. He could tell, without trying, that Tony felt a deep love for what to most people would be an inanimate object.

“Come on, E, you got this,” Tony cheered.

Pop.

Tony celebrated the robot’s success with him, grinning.

He took hold of the bottle.

“Even one-handed, I’ll pour better than he does,” he explained to Stephen, pouring out two glasses of wine.   
Stephen found that his eyes were locked on the horizon. It was a beautiful night. The sun had set just moments before, and there was a delicate glow all around them. He could, of course, see the magic in the air as well, an energy that thrummed and pulsed around every living thing. He took a breath and was so thankful for the fact that he was looking at it.

“It’s a gorgeous night, isn’t it?” Tony asked, stepping up from behind. He handed Stephen his glass and then went back for his own.

“I don’t know if I was technically dead, but I’ve gained a lot of appreciation for just living…”

“Me too,” Tony spoke softly. “It’s a pretty beautiful picture.” 

Tony raised the stump of his ruined arm. “Guess what?” he said with a wide grin. “The doctor from Wakanda I’ve been working with, Doctor Bishara, she said that I should be cleared to have a prosthetic pretty soon. I’m working on a prototype already!”

Between the two of them, Tony laid out a tablet. He pressed the middle, and a holographic projection of his prosthetic appeared.

“It’s going to revolutionize these things,” he said, his eyes lighting up. “Not just for me, but for thousands of people who need prosthetics. I’ve been looking over some of the current models, and they’re clunky, useless. This one will…”

Stephen had to admit that he lost a little focus when Tony began rambling, but something about the sound of his voice filled his heart with hope. He was such a strong, forward-facing man. He was always looking for ways to make the world better, not just for himself but for everyone.   
He couldn’t help the tingle inside his chest. He fell more and more in love with each second.

“Tony, you’re going to do great things.”

***

_His fifth visit_

By the next time he visited, the first prototype for the arm was complete.

“Can you believe I built this thing one-handed?” Tony asked, tilting his head to the side. He couldn’t help a smirk. That was another thing that Stephen loved about Tony. He was confident and self-assured, and he knew what he was capable of. “It’s not perfect yet, and I’ve still got some kinks to work out, but I’m making sure that it’s distributed no-cost to those in need when it’s done.”

“Have you tested it?” Stephen asked, his heart jumping into his chest.

Tony shook his head. 

“Nope. I was actually going to do that right now. Help me?”

Under Tony’s instruction, Stephen picked up the prosthetic arm. It weighed far less than he’d imagined, made out of crisscrossing red and gold bands of thin, pliable metal.

“What do I do?” he asked softly.

“Hold it about two inches away from the end of my…um, stump thing…”

Stephen did what he was told.

The arm flew out of his hands. Stephen watched in awe as nanobots from the end of the arm made the connections. It was beautiful, elegant and absolutely perfect.

Until it sparked.

The sparks came out of the fingertips, a shower of glitter that fizzed and faded.

“So, we definitely have some kinks to work out,” Tony said, flexing his fingers and shooting out several more tiny static sparks. “But we’re on the right track.”

Stephen broke into a smile.

“That we are.” 

He couldn’t help but lay a kiss on Tony’s lips, thankful and hopeful for the future.


End file.
